The present invention relates to an improved skate.
In the field both of roller and ice skating the problem of optimizing the skating action given the particularly rigid structure of the skates, is currently strongly felt.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,228,544 discloses an ice skate composed of a soft shoe having a sole rigidly connected to a first front plate and to a second rear plate.
The first plate, which affects the entire forward region of the foot up to the metatarsal region, is rigidly coupled to a first blade, while the second plate is rigidly coupled to a second blade, which is slidingly connected, at one end, at the first blade in the metatarsal region.
In this skate, a flexing of the foot and therefore of the shoe is matched by a combined rotary and translatory motion of the rear blade, which accordingly generates no resistance to the flexing of the shoe.
However, since the metatarsal region is intensely stressed during skating, particularly during thrusting or braking and therefore when the weight of the user is added to the thrusting force or the inertia of the body, this structure can compromise the precise alignment of the front blade with respect to the rear blade, causing vibrations which in practice decrease, instead of increasing, control and comfort in using the skate.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,603,588 discloses an ice skate and a roller skate which comprise a shoe below whose sole a first blade or a first wheel supporting truck is rigidly coupled in the forward foot region.
At the heel region of the shoe there is provided instead a rigid connection between the heel and a second blade or truck, which is rotatably articulated to the preceding blade or truck in the region below the plantar arch.
In this skate it is evident that the rotation of the shoe is prevented, for obvious kinematic reasons, or is such as to cause deformations and stresses on the skate.
The rotation of the rear part alone of the blade or of the frame or of the wheels in fact entails the longitudinal compression of the sole during the movement of the foot, and this can produce uncomfortable depressions in the sole.
At the same time, indeed because the sole is compressed during the movement of the foot, it generates resistance to the movement of the foot, increasing the fatigue of the user and preventing the free movement of the foot.